Labour leader Bill Shorten supports marriage equality but has recently stepped up his attacks on the plebiscite plan.
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The Greens on Friday decided they would be opposing the popular vote and today the Nick Xenophon Team and independent senator Derryn Hinch also said they would not be supporting legislation for a plebsicite.
A small but influential centrist party on Monday joined the country’s third-biggest political force, the Australian Greens, in opposing a popular vote despite backing legalization of marriage equality.
Labor sources tried to douse speculation this would lead to a divided effort on a parliamentary vote and said the party was prepared to work with the cross-bench to co-ordinate the best way forward.
You would look at teen suicide rates and the ongoing incidents of hate crime and understand why the people who have the most to gain from a change to the marriage laws also fear they have the most to lose.
The only apparent way to progress now on marriage equality in Australia appears to be if opposition leader Bill Shorten and the Labor party agree to back a plebiscite, which they have been persistently arguing against on the grounds that it would subject gay and lesbian Australians to vilification.
Despite Labor and crossbench reluctance, the Government remains positive, with cabinet minister Mathias Corman saying it wasn’t a given that parliament would block a plebiscite.
He recommitted Labor to pushing for a free vote in parliament. That bill was debated, but not voted on.
An overwhelming majority of Australians-around 70%, according to a pre-election Ipsos poll-support same- sex marriage.
A national referendum would not only be expensive, it would be divisive.
Wong dismissed suggestions that blocking the plebiscite would result in taking same-sex marriage off the agenda.
Attorney General George Brandis said the plebiscite was the “only way”.
The demise of the plebiscite means the issue will not be revisited for at least three years, and only if Labor wins the next election.
Mr Entsch, a strong advocate for the same-sex marriage movement, said that the Coalition was “rock solid” on its support for a plebiscite.
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He urged Labor to “get out of the way” and get behind the government’s proposed plebiscite.
